Lish Coming Long Way For Marathon Look At Short Story

April 03, 1986|By John Blades, Literary critic.

As godfather to some of America`s better known short story writers, Gordon Lish isn`t usually indentified with long-distance projects. But the New York editor, teacher and novelist will be here on April 19 for what may be remembered in local literary history as the Ragdale Marathon.

Lish, formerly fiction editor at Esquire, now with New York`s hallowed publishing house of Knopf, will conduct a 12-hour workshop in writing short stories at the Ragdale Foundation in Lake Forest.

``What it will amount to is as thoroughgoing a rendering as I can manage in that time of what I think goes into the composition of effective short fiction,`` Lish says of his epic workshop, which is sponsored by

StoryQuarterly, the Chicago area literary magazine, and partly funded by the Illinois Arts Council.

``The idea,`` says Lish, who edits such writers as Barry Hannah, Amy Hempel and Bette Howland, ``is to make this a highly concentrated experience of the kind that`s practiced by those schools that teach intensive language training.``

Lish is accustomed to teaching such workshops at Columbia and New York Universities, though usually for six-hour periods. ``Most students report that they find these exhilarating, rather than exhausting,`` says Lish, whose second novel, ``Peru,`` was published earlier this year.

While he calls this a ``master`` class, Lish doesn`t guarantee that students will emerge as masters of the short story, or that they`ll even emerge as writers. The best he can offer is that the course helps ``establish an attitude that prefigures learning how to write.``

How does the workshop work? ``You have to be there,`` insists Lish, co-editor of StoryQuarterly`s spring issue No. 21. ``If I could synopsize it, then I would do it in 20 minutes.`` The price of being there isn`t cheap: 35 students will pay $225 for the session, which runs from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Ragdale, 1230 N. Green Bay Rd., Lake Forest.

Though the registration fee includes lunch and dinner, these may not be long breaks, if Lish has his way. ``I like to go nonstop,`` he says. p

Anne Brashler, co-chairwoman of the workshop, indicates that there are limited number of spaces left, if any. Call her for information at 835-4168.

-- Two Chicago authors and a publisher will talk about ghost writing and writing collaborative, or as-told-to, books at an April 10 meeting of the Society of Midland Authors. Panelists are Herman Kogan, whose books include

``Give the Lady What She Wants`` and ``The Great EB``; Richard Wittingham, co-author with Jimmy Piersall of ``The Truth Hurts``; and William J. Dell, editor in chief of Ferguson Publishing Co. Jerry Nemanic, host of the WBEZ-FM radio show, ``Writing/Chicago,`` is moderator. The program begins with a 5:30 p.m. reception at the Chicago Press Club, 410 N. Michigan Ave. Admission is $4 for members, $5 for nonmembers (332-3984).

-- Charles Scribner Jr., head of the company that has published Ernest Hemingway`s work since 1926, will make his first trip to Oak Park on April 19 to reminisce about the Nobel Prize-winning author. Titled ``The Education of Ernest Hemingway: Oak Park to Kilimanjaro,`` Scribner`s speech--at 3 p.m. at the Holmes School, 508 N. Kenilworth, Oak Park--will be followed by a dramatization of the Hemingway story, ``Soldier`s Home,`` by the Synergy Players.

Scribner`s lecture and the drama are part of a benefit for the Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park, which includes a 5:30 p.m. ceremony rededicating the author`s boyhood home, 600 N. Kenilworth, and a champagne reception. Tickets are $5 for the lecture, $50 for the entire program.

(524-0983).

-- Six writers from India will be at the University of Chicago, April 17-20, for what is reportedly the first major international conference on Indian literature. The writers--Nissim Ezekiel, Ayyappa Paniker, Nabaneeta Sen, Nirmal Verma, U.R. Ananthamurthy and Girish Karnad--will read from their work in English at the free program. It includes a poetry reading at 8 p.m. April 18, at the Bergman Gallery, 5811 Ellis Ave., and fiction and drama at 8:30 p.m. April 19 in the South Asia Commons in Foster Hall, 1130 E. 59th St. (962-8356).